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There are three types of people in the world.
1. Those that see only things ‘as they are’, they see what is on the surface.
2. Those that only see the ‘connections’ between things, how things relate to each other.
3. Those that can do both of the above.
I think that vast majority of arguments and debates occur between the types of people noted above. Telcat is the first type of person, she has a firm grasp on things as they are. She quickly and correctly indentifies facts and issues but gets frustrated when she cannot make sense of them. Her post above clearly reflects this, good observations of the world around her but frustration over how and why things occur.
For example, anyone who understands the connections between the things does not go from ‘cockroaches and virus survive’ to ‘humans are not really intellectually superior’.
She has struggled for years about ‘work’, often interfacing with me about this topic. Recently I suggested she go read ‘Working’ by Studs Terkel. This book is a compilation of interviews from every type of ‘worker’ imaginable, about what they do and why they do it. But unfortunately I doubt that Telcat would get anything from the book because she would only see it as a collection of interviews. She would read it and come away without understanding the connections between all the diverse careers and interviews.
The deltas between people noted above is not a criticism, society benefits from the different types of people contributing to it. But in many ways this discussion is about ‘knowledge’ and ‘wisdom’. Knowledge is what gets you a job, wisdom is what gets you a life. I find Telcat to be quite knowledgeable. She will always be able to get a job and be successful in that job but will always struggle with understanding the connections between things.
In other words, she is knowledgeable enough to know the tomatoes are a fruit and not a vegetable but does not have the wisdom to understand that you don’t put tomatoes in a fruit salad.
eph
1. Those that see only things ‘as they are’, they see what is on the surface.
2. Those that only see the ‘connections’ between things, how things relate to each other.
3. Those that can do both of the above.
I think that vast majority of arguments and debates occur between the types of people noted above. Telcat is the first type of person, she has a firm grasp on things as they are. She quickly and correctly indentifies facts and issues but gets frustrated when she cannot make sense of them. Her post above clearly reflects this, good observations of the world around her but frustration over how and why things occur.
For example, anyone who understands the connections between the things does not go from ‘cockroaches and virus survive’ to ‘humans are not really intellectually superior’.
She has struggled for years about ‘work’, often interfacing with me about this topic. Recently I suggested she go read ‘Working’ by Studs Terkel. This book is a compilation of interviews from every type of ‘worker’ imaginable, about what they do and why they do it. But unfortunately I doubt that Telcat would get anything from the book because she would only see it as a collection of interviews. She would read it and come away without understanding the connections between all the diverse careers and interviews.
The deltas between people noted above is not a criticism, society benefits from the different types of people contributing to it. But in many ways this discussion is about ‘knowledge’ and ‘wisdom’. Knowledge is what gets you a job, wisdom is what gets you a life. I find Telcat to be quite knowledgeable. She will always be able to get a job and be successful in that job but will always struggle with understanding the connections between things.
In other words, she is knowledgeable enough to know the tomatoes are a fruit and not a vegetable but does not have the wisdom to understand that you don’t put tomatoes in a fruit salad.
eph
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